


A New Hero

by Cherry_Coco_Berry



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Anxiety, Identity Reveal, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sort of Graphic Violence, Suicidal Thoughts, fox nathanael, idk if it counts as graphic though, insecure nath, marinette is a little jealous, minor homophobia, nathanael's mom is not good at being a mom, some violence, the heroes aren't stupid, trixx is grumpy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-05 16:49:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10312751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherry_Coco_Berry/pseuds/Cherry_Coco_Berry
Summary: By the time he got home Nathanael was soaked and felt ten pounds heavier so he changed clothes quickly. Once in a new pair of skinny jeans and a baggy long-sleeve shirt he rummaged around in his bag and tried to find his school tablet. Instead of the cool metal of the tablet, however, his hand wrapped around a smooth wooden box.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just getting a beta for this now, but I'm posting it un-betaed anyway. Once it's been looked over I'll update the chapters.  
> Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Miraculous Ladybug. If I did there would be much, much more violence.

Nathanael sighed as the rain splattered onto his face. The weather forecaster has  _ said  _ it was going to rain but he had stupidly ignored him in favor of believing that it would stay sunny and nearly cloudless, and now he regretted it. He only had one more block to walk and he would be home, finally, when he saw the old man. The man didn’t have an umbrella and was trying to walk his groceries into what looked like a dojo but was having little luck with carrying both them and his cane. Nathanael had been ready to offer his help when the man’s cane, slippery from the rain, fell onto the sidewalk. The older man wobbled for a moment before steadying himself and looking down at the cane with disappointment, as if it had betrayed him by falling.

The red-haired teen stooped down and picked the cane up, wiping the handle down on his shirt so it was less slick, and handed it back to its owner.

“Would you like some help?” Nathanael asked the man, “I’d be glad to.”

The man gave him a considering look, almost as if he was sizing him up, then smiled, “I’d love some help, young man. And please, call me Master Fu.”

After the redhead nodded Master Fu handed him a bag of groceries and they walked them into the dojo, putting them away before Nathanael left to go home.

By the time he got home Nathanael was soaked and felt ten pounds heavier so he changed clothes quickly. Once in a new pair of skinny jeans and a baggy long-sleeve shirt he rummaged around in his bag and tried to find his school tablet. Instead of the cool metal of the tablet, however, his hand wrapped around a smooth wooden box.

Curious, he pulled the box out of his schoolbag and held it up to the light.

It looked like a normal wooden box and, despite knowing that it definitely wasn’t his, he opened it.

Nathanael threw himself backwards when the box began to emit an odd glow, ducking his head under his arms in case it was a bomb of sorts that he had just triggered. When he realized he wasn’t dead he glanced at the box only to shout when he saw some sort of floating orange fox.

“Wh-what are you?” Nathanael asked, “What do you want?”

The fox creature glanced around his room, taking in the doodles tacked all over the walls, and groaned.

“What is it with my holders always being artists? I mean, come  _ on,  _ Tikki always gets people with different talents and so does Plagg,” the creature seemed to realize that it had an audience and gave him an appraising look. “At least  _ you  _ fit the color scheme. The last person had had brown hair,  _ brown.  _ I had to use part of my powers just to make sure her hair fit the scheme.”

Now Nathanael was certain he was dreaming because most foxes don’t talk. Most foxes don’t  _ float. _ He didn’t even realize that he had begun hyperventilating until the fox was suddenly in his face and telling him to  _ breathe slower, dammit. _

Once the fox was sure his new wielder was calm she began to speak again.

“My name is Trixx,” she said, “Nice to meet you, whatever-your-name-is.”

“Nathanael,” the redhead replied.

“Nath it is. Hey, do you have any macaroons? No? Oh well, you’ll just have to get me some later.”

The newly named Nath gave the creature, Trixx, a look, “What do you mean ‘later’? There is no ‘later’. You’re going back in the box and getting out of my house!”

Nath crawled forward and reached up for the box to shut it and Trixx shot forward, frantically trying to stop him.

“Wait!” she shouted, “I can turn you into a superhero, like Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

Nathanael froze.

It had to be lying. There was no way that someone as meek as him could become a superhero and fight people. He didn’t even have  _ experience  _ fighting!

Nath opened his mouth to tell Trixx that she must be lying when the rain that had been softly pattering against his window stopped and the wind began to howl violently.

Trixx became frantic, picking up a necklace with a white foxtail charm from within the box and dropping it over Nathanael’s head.

“I’m not lying!” she shouted, barely audible over the wind, “Say ‘Trixx, transforme moi’! Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to need your help!”

“Uh… Trixx, transforme moi?” he spoke, still unsure that what Trixx was telling him was true. Then a light flashed and Nathanael stood there, shocked that Trixx really had been telling the truth. Instead of his skinny jeans and baggy shirt, he was wearing a skin-tight orange leather bodysuit two leathery fox ears with fluff in the center, and an orange belt around his waist with a fluffy tail attached. He swung around to look in his mirror and grinned, he even had a mask!

A loud noise at his window startled him back to action and he shouted for Trixx, who had suddenly disappeared.

“Trixx! Trixx, where are you!”

When nobody answered he frowned and mumbled to himself, “I guess I’m just supposed to figure this out myself then…”

Nathanael pried his window open and was assaulted by a great gust of wind that nearly threw him backward, but his new hero-suit proved to hold a few surprises. As he gripped the windowsill for dear life claws grew from the tips of his fingers and dug into the wooden sill, holding him in place. Curious, Nath flexed his fingers and found that they were retractable.

The little, but strong, claws gave him more confidence in his abilities and he dug them harder into the wood before flinging himself out the window. He hit the building he was aiming for with a thud and he groaned, his face was definitely going to be bruised when he got out of the suit.

Using his claws to find handholds he worked his way to the roof of the building, dropping exhausted when he reached it. He did  _ not  _ have the muscles for this.  _ I wish I had something like Ladybug and Chat Noir do to help me get around. Paris is  _ not  _ a small city. _

The fox stood up and stretched, then felt something nudge against his back. He reached behind his back and grabbed at it, for a moment unable to reach it. Once he had it in his hand Nath took a good look at it.

It was a flute.

The flute was orange, like his suit, and felt fragile in his hands. Then--just as he was wishing he had gotten a bigger, stronger weapon--the flute grew, and it grew, and it grew until it was almost longer than his arm and felt strong enough that he could slam it against a brick wall and it wouldn’t even dent (though the wall might). He didn’t know how to play the flute, but he raised it up to his lips and blew.

It was almost as if his body knew what he was doing because his fingers danced across the instrument and he played a melody that was lost to the wind. He grinned, but it disappeared quickly when he heard fighting in the distance.

His ears perked, as if they weren’t just leather and fluff, and he tucked the rapidly shrinking flute into his belt so he could race across the rooftops.

He arrived as soon as he could, but Ladybug already had her lucky charm out and he could see Chat’s ring blinking; he had already used Cataclysm. Figuring he wasn’t needed, Nathanael sat back on the roof and observed the akuma victim.

The akuma wore an ugly yellow rain slicker and hat and seemed to be able to control the rain and wind--like how Stormy Weather had been able to control ice and wind. His voice was low and rumbling and he could just barely hear, from his hiding spot on the roof, the akuma telling Paris’ heroes that they couldn’t stop him because he was the Weatherman and he was going to flush out their identities or they would drown. To punctuate this sentence, rain poured from the sky in great torrents, causing a flash flood. The strength of the water knocked over a street lamp and Nath could only watch in horror as it toppled over, beginning to fall right where Chat Noir was standing.

He didn’t think, only acted. Ladybug was too far away from Chat to do anything and was focused so hard on her lucky charm that she couldn’t see that her partner was in danger, so he jumped. Nathanael landed too far away from the cat to be able to reach him in time, but he knew what he had to do.

“Se métamorphoser!”

His body twisted and he suddenly found himself much closer to the ground and on all fours, an actual fox instead of someone in a fox costume. He raced towards Chat Noir--much faster than a human could’ve--and rammed into him, shoving him out of the way of the falling light pole.  The two tumbled along the ground and finally stilled, Chat Noir on the ground and a flustered fox laying on the cat’s stomach.

The black cat gave him a look and Nath’s ears flattened as if he was being scolded. He jumped off of the hero and scampered into a back alley to try and transform back to a human. After a few minutes passed he was back in the leather suit and scrambling out of the alleyway to help Ladybug and Chat noir in the still ongoing fight.

Neither hero spared him too long of a glance as he shot into the fight, both were worried that their time was running out. As Weatherman went after Ladybug she threw her lucky charm, a boomerang, at him and knocked the rain cap off of his head.

Weatherman screamed as Chat Noir threw the hat to Ladybug who, with amazing strength, tore it in half. She captured the akuma in her yo-yo and purified it, shouting “Lucky Charm!” and fixing all of the damage that had been done.

The Weatherman, now a normal man in a yellow raincoat, grabbed his hat and went on his merry way, having no idea what had just happened and the damage he had done to his city.

“Pound it!” Ladybug and Chat shouted, fist-bumping. They seemed not to care that that man would find out that he had tried to drown half of the city through the news, his friends, and his coworkers.

Chat’s ring blinked, signaling that he had only a minute left, and he took off down the streets of Paris with his tail swaying behind him. Ladybug stayed for a moment and leveled a hostile look at the new fox hero, warning him that if he hurt her or her partner she wouldn’t take him out as peacefully as she had any of their previous villains. Then she too shot down the sunny streets of Paris and into the sky, disappearing in the horizon.

Nath stared after her until his necklace beeped out a final warning and he jumped to the rooftops and took off towards his house, jumping through the window just as his time wore off.

Trixx popped back into appearance, exhausted from the transformations, on his bed, “You’d better have macaroons for me, tomato-boy. Or no more hero.”


	2. Chapter 2

The next day found Nathanael with a floating fox named Trixx hiding in his school bag as he ran to school, late from having slept in for the first time in years. Besides late, he was also sore. He had, in fact, ended up with a bruise covering most of his body from having slammed face-first into the wall. According to Trixx, the suit absorbed most of the impact--which is why he hadn’t de-transformed with a broken nose and bruised ribs.

As he raced through the door of his science class (just his luck he was late for  _ that _ class, the teacher hated him) something exploded in his face. Marinette and Chloe had been paired for their lab and their hatred of each other had distracted them from the project. Whatever they had created made him dizzy and he swayed a bit, catching himself on the door fame before he could fall. 

“Miss Dupain-Cheng, Miss Bourgeois,  _ what  _ is the meaning of this?”

He could see Chloe’s eyes widen almost imperceptibly from his place by the door and she smirked nastily at Marinette before whipping around to face the teacher.

“Oh, Ms. Mendeleiev! Thank goodness you’re here!” she cried, swooning, “I tried to stop her, but Marinette just started dumping chemicals into our test tube! I didn’t know what to do!”

Ms. Mendeleiev frowned at her, jutting out her pointed chin and glaring.

“Miss Bourgeois, cease your lying. This is science, not drama class, and I will not have you fabricating tales about your classmates. You will go down to the principle's office and tell him the truth.”

Chloe huffed, turning up her nose and scowling, “It’s not  _ my  _ fault. Anyway, Daddy’s been wanting to cut funding for science class, maybe I should call him and tell him to go ahead.” She pulled out her phone, typing in her father’s number and hitting ‘call,’ “It’s ringing…”

“I will not listen to you, you spoilt little brat. I am your teacher and you will go down to see the principle and you will get detention. For a week!”

Chloe looked at her teacher’s face and gave a shark-tooth smile.

“Daddy,” she spoke, voice like honey, into her phone, “Ms. Mendeleiev said that she has too much money in the science program. I think you should lessen the budget…”

Her father spoke on the other end a she smiled, “Thank you.”

The click of the call ending was practically deafening in the silent room.

“To the principle!” the purple haired teacher suddenly screamed and Chloe cowered, fearing for her life or at least her grade.

After Chloe left and Nath snuck to his seat in the back of the room the fuming and red-faced teacher handed out a paper and demanded them be quiet so she could grade their other work. A few minutes after they began silently working the fox-boy heard someone mumbling. He glanced around and saw with horror that Ms. Mendeleiev had the shadows on her face that supposedly appear on someone about to be akumatized.

Not a second later his teacher stood, no longer his teacher but a villain in a long lab coat and wearing a belt that held vials of chemicals.

It took a moment for someone other than Nathanael to notice the change and once people saw, chaos spread. The redhead quickly separated himself from the group of screaming students, something he saw Marinette and Adrien do too, and he slipped out the classroom’s back door.

He woke Trixx, who grumped at him, and he explained the situation.

“She changed right in front of your class?” Trixx asked, stunned, “When Le Papillon wasn’t a villain he always waited until the people he chose to be his champions were alone. He viewed the changing as a sort of private affair.”

“Le Papillon used to be a hero? … Wait, there’s not time for this. Ms. Mendeleiev is probably trying to destroy everything as we speak!” Nath exclaimed, “Trixx, transforme moi!”

Within a second he was in his fox suit again and he pulled out his flute, watching it grow to the size of a baton. Soon he raced back into the classroom to find the akuma gone and all but a few of the students lying on the ground having been knocked unconscious, presumably by the chemicals the teacher had been carrying. Alya, one of Marinette’s friends, was one of the students still awake. As soon as she saw him she pulled out her phone, curious about the new masked person in Paris.

“Hi, uhh, Fox-boy!” she called out to him, phone recording live to the Ladyblog, “Are you a hero too, like Ladybug and Chat Noir? Why haven’t we seen you around before?”

Nathanael was flustered, this was more attention than he was comfortable with, but responded “Uh… Yeah. I mean--yes, I’m like Ladybug and Chat Noir. I’m, umm… new?”

Alya smiled brightly at him, “So, what’s your name?”

“Uh…” Nathanael was  _ not  _ prepared for this, “… Rusé?”

Now Alya grinned at him and pushed him out of the classroom, “Great! You should get going now, the akuma is heading to the principal’s office.” She snorted, “Probably to kill Chloe.”

“And you’ll stay here?”

Alya didn’t reply, only ducked back into the classroom where she had come from. Figuring that that meant she would stay, Rusé ran down to the principal’s office. Surprisingly enough he got there before Paris’ original heroes. Chloe was hiding behind the unconscious form of the owl-like principal and she screamed, making Nath whip around to face the villain and barely miss getting hit by one of the akuma’s chemical bombs.

“I am Ms. Chemical!” The akuma stated, “And I will have your miraculous! Then I can teach all of you just how dangerous chemicals can be!”

The akuma laughed darkly and threw a vial of something neon pink and smoking at him and Rusé swung his flute at it. When the flute made contact the vial shattered and sprayed the mystery substance around the room. Everything it touched--the flute, the floor, the walls, Nath’s cheek--sizzled and bubbled before being eaten away by the goo.

He screamed as the flesh was eaten off of his cheek and he clapped a hand over the spot, trying futilely to stop the pain. Ms. Chemical cackled at his pain and Ladybug finally dropped in. She gave him a quick glance before launching herself into the fight, swinging her yoyo around as if it were light as a feather. As Nath was recovering Chat Noir jumped into the room and landed next to him.

“Are you okay?” Chat asked him, frowning at the look of obvious pain on the fox’s face, “Are you hurt?”  
Barely refraining from growling animalistically at the other hero he ground out, “What Ms. Chemical is throwing around eats away at everything. Flesh included.”

Chat’s impossibly green eyes widened at that and he called out to Ladybug to warn her, “My Lady! Our new friend here say that those chemicals chew through flesh, we need to hurry this up!”

Then, after he had sufficiently warned his Lady, Chat grabbed a piece of cloth seemingly out of nowhere held it on his cheek where the chemical had reached. The cat’s breath tickled the sides of his neck the two were so close together and Nathanael quickly pulled away. The look on the face in front of him wasn’t one of Chat Noir’s looks, it was one of Adrien’s, and Nath wasn’t sure he could deal with that revelation and fight an akuma at the same time.

“Let’s go help her,” Nath said after an awkward beat.

Chat nodded, “Let’s.”

With that the two launched themselves into battle in a room the was rapidly becoming more holes than walls. Once in the heat of battle Rusé heard Ladybug cry out for Chat, telling him to use Cataclysm on the lighting fixture hanging above Ms. Chemical’s head and he did, launching himself up to it with his staff.

The fixture fell onto the teacher’s head and Ladybug lept for the akuma, reaching for a specific vial of chemicals that must be what’s creating the akuma. She fell just short of reaching it and by then the akuma had recovered and was preparing another dangerous disaster for them. Not able to sit there and let Ladybug get hit by something so horrid, Nath called on his special power.

“Se métamorphoser!”

Once again he was a little red fox and he dashed up to Ms. Chemical, vaguely aware of the spotted heroine calling upon her Lucky Charm and receiving a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide and a pack of medical tape, and jumped for the bottle. Once it was securely in his jaws he raced to the other side of the room and dropped it on the floor. The butterfly escaped as it shattered and Nath howled in pain as the liquid in the vial splashed out onto his paws.

The liquid ate through his fur and, when it reached his skin, his transformation into a fox ended.

He looked over at Ladybug for help only to find her staring in horror at his hands. The gloves had been destroyed and most of the flesh at his fingertips and on the palm of his hands was gone and, with his low pain tolerance, it really was a wonder he hadn’t passed out yet.

Snapping out of it, Ladybug purified the akuma but didn’t call out “Miraculous Ladybug!” like she normally did to fix what the akuma had broken and turn them back to normal. Instead she walked over to him with a red bottle of hydrogen peroxide and some red medical tape.

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you at first,” she started, “But the whole Volpina thing had just happened and I thought you could possibly be someone like her.”

Rusé smiled gently at her, “I understand. I probably wouldn’t have trusted me either. Now could you… uh… help me?”  
He held up his hands and she frowned at them, “Normally the akuma’s aren’t this… violent. I wonder why Le Papillon has made them more of killers--maybe because there’s three of us now?”

Nath shrugged and Chat sidled himself up next to the newest hero, plunking onto the ground beside him.

“Are you going to be okay out of costume?” Chat asked and Ladybug opened her mouth to tell him that they weren’t supposed to know anything about each other outside of costume but the cat continued, “I know that sometimes, after a really tough fight, when I detransform I have bruises and scratches on my body. My kwami says its because he can only take part of the damage I’ve sustained.”

Ladybug’s mouth dropped open as he spoke, almost as if she had never been injured during her time as a heroine, “You- you get hurt during the fights? Why didn’t you say something?”

Chat looked at her incredulously and took one of the new hero’s hands in his own gently, turning it over comfortingly, “Of course. Did you think I could get away from being slammed into walls and cars and things  _ without  _ getting hurt?”

Ladybug’s brows furrowed, “Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t get hurt when _I_ get thrown into walls or anything.”  
Chat’s lips pursed and he dumped a bit of the peroxide on the fox-boy’s wounds, wincing as the redhead hissed out in pain. “It must be your kwami then. Ladybugs are supposed to be lucky, so maybe its just that you’re _lucky_ enough not to stay injured.”

“Maybe,” Ladybug sighed.

Chat Noir finished dumping peroxide on Nath’s hands and Ladybug began wrapping them with the medical tape. The cat stood up and stretched, back popping, and gave a slightly tired looking grin.

“So, Foxy, what’s  _ your  _ name?”

Nath grinned at the nickname and flexed his fingers, relieved that there hadn’t been any nerve damage, and said, “Rusé.”

Chat grinned back at him, “Cute name, fluff-ball.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes and grabbed the used chemical bottle, throwing it in the air and shouting “Miraculous Ladybug!” to turn everything back to how it was.

Nath wasn’t surprised when the bandages around his hands disappeared, and was even less surprised when his necklace flashed and beeped, telling him he only had a few minutes left. Chat’s ring was flashing too and he bowed to his fellow heroes, bidding them a good day before taking off out of the office.

Behind Rusé and Ladybug the principal stirred, and Chloe rushed over to her favorite hero.

“Ladybug!” she cried, “I’m so glad you’re here and stopped that awful villain! We should get a picture together!”

The blonde pulled out her phone and the bug-themed heroine frowned for a moment until her earrings, conveniently, signalled that she had to go. As Ladybug swung away Chloe turned to him and frowned.

“Who’re  _ you _ supposed to be, and what’s wrong with your hands?”

Rusé frowned at her; he didn’t like Chloe but there was no harm in being civil to her and keeping up the appearance of being a hero to everyone. “My name’s Rusé, I’m new to being a hero. I- I hope you’re okay?”

Chloe’s face pinked and Nath blinked as she giggled at him. Shaking his head at the annoying blonde’s odd behavior he left the room--he only had a minute left and had to get somewhere private to detransform.

Once he was back to being shy, lonely Nathanael Kurtzberg he slid into the science classroom and acted as if he was just waking up.

“What… What happened?” he asked. Nobody else knew and he couldn’t help but feel bad for them, that they lost a good part of their life to some innocent person who had been tricked into being the bad guy.

Ms. Mendeleiev marched into the classroom, face pinked with embarrassment, and stood before the sleepy class.

“Class,” she began, “I apologize for this afternoon and Principal Damocles has told me to inform you of an early dismissal from classes due to the akuma attack. If you would all please gather your things…”

Acting disoriented, Nathanael gathered his sketchbook in his bag, placing it gently next to a sleeping, worn-out Trixx. Luckily, when Ladybug fixed the damage done during the battle it had caused the skin to grow back where he lost it. Unfortunately, the skin that grew back was thin and fragile. Just touching the edges of his sketchbook had sliced the skin open and given him a few small cuts. How he was going to explain this, he had no idea.

As he was exiting the classroom he passed by Adrien, who looked the worse for wear, a bruise on his forearm that hadn’t been there at the beginning of class. Deciding not to think about the fact that that was the same arm that Chat Noir had injured in the battle against Ms. Chemical, and that the two were very physically similar, Nath left class.

Because he was so intent on ignoring the stunning similarities between Chat Noir and his famous classmate, he didn’t notice the stares of both Adrien and Marinette focused on a small spot on his face. Specifically, the spot where Rusé had been hit by chemicals that, on Nathanael, was the bright pink of new skin.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am soooo sorry that this took like three months. I ended up actually doing stuff with my life and couldn't even find the time to post my chapters. So, because I made you all wait so long, you can have two for the price of one (it's still not betaed)! Enjoy!

Marinette did  _ not  _ trust the new hero. It had been too convenient when he had shown up just when her partner had been about to be struck by a light post and it didn’t sit right with her. She had tossed and turned all night, afraid that this new fox hero wasn’t a hero at all--like Lila. Another reason she had been unable to sleep was his face. When she had glared at him, trying to tell him that she wasn’t going to trust him, he had looked so hurt. She had felt her heart clench when she had swung away and he had just looked resigned to the fact that she didn’t like him.

She had to wonder who he was under the mask that he was so resigned to people not liking him, but she was never going to know. She and Chat Noir hadn’t yet told each other who they were and she didn’t intend to learn who the new guy was either.

By the time morning rolled around she had gotten a whole three hours of sleep and had sleepwalked her way to school. She hadn’t even realized that her shirt was on backwards until Alya had told her so, laughing and saying she was lucky Adrien hadn’t arrived yet.

Embarrassed, she had fixed her shirt and sunk into her seat, face red. Soon, almost all of her classmates and Ms. Mendeleiev had found their way to their seats and, once the bell rang, they were to begin a lab. The teacher, not trusting her students to chose who to work with, picked partners. Alya was with Alix, Kim was with Nino, Adrien was with Sabrina and she, unfortunately, was with Chloe. As soon as Chloe moved to be by Marinette at their station the chaos started.

Chloe wasn’t good at science and was even worse at following directions, and they ended up spending the first five minutes of class arguing over what chemicals they were supposed to mix together and how. In the end, Chloe grabbed a few test-tubes of  _ something  _ and poured them together in the one test tube they were given, saying that science class doesn’t matter anyway.

What the blond brat mixed created a cloud of mist that, unfortunately, blew into the face of Nathanael who was walking into class late.

Marinette wanted to see if Nathanael was okay but Ms. Mendeleiev stomped over to her group at that moment.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng, Miss Bourgeois,  _ what  _ is the meaning of this?”

Marinette gulped, scared of the wrath of her most strict teacher, and Chloe whipped around.

“Oh, Ms. Mendeleiev! Thank goodness you’re here!” she cried, swooning, “I tried to stop her, but Marinette just started dumping chemicals into our test tube! I didn’t know what to do!”

Ms. Mendeleiev frowned at her, jutting out her pointed chin and glaring, clearly seeing Marinette’s look of utter disbelief.

“Miss Bourgeois, cease your lying. This is science, not drama class, and I will not have you fabricating tales about your classmates. You will go down to the principle's office and tell him the truth.”

Chloe huffed, turning up her nose and scowling, “It’s not  _ my  _ fault. Anyway, Daddy’s been wanting to cut funding for science class, maybe I should call him and tell him to go ahead.” She pulled out her phone, typing in her father’s number, “It’s ringing…”

“I will not listen to you, you spoilt little brat. I am your teacher and you will go down to see the principle and you will get detention. For a week!”

Chloe looked at her teacher’s face and gave a shark-tooth smile.

“Daddy,” she spoke into her phone, “Ms. Mendeleiev said that she has too much money in the science program. I think you should lessen the budget…”

Her father spoke on the other end and she smiled, “Thank you.”

The click of the call ending was practically deafening in the silent room.

“To the principle!” the purple haired teacher suddenly screamed and Chloe cowered, fearing for her life or at least her grade.

Marinette frowned as the mayor’s daughter left the class. The girl was such a spoilt brat, she  _ cut funding for their class  _ just because she got into trouble for doing something wrong. Still frowning, Marinette began silently working on the paper her frustrated teacher handed out. After a few minutes of working though, chaos started.

She looked up from her work to gasp, there was an akuma  _ in her classroom  _ and she hadn’t even noticed!

Ms. Mendeleiev had been akumatized and stood before her in a long labcoat wearing a belt holding vials upon vials of dangerous looking chemicals. Including the one Chloe had made.

Quickly the heroine separated herself from the panicking students. When the akuma saw them freaking out she snarled and took out on of her chemicals, blowing on the top of it and creating a mist like Chloe’s chemical mishap had created and knocked out whoever it touched.

The students on the other side of the room dropped like rocks and, to keep herself from  _ really  _ getting knocked out, she played unconscious.

Marinette heard the slamming of the classroom door and she was about to get up but the door reopened and she hear someone moving around.

“Hi, uhh, Fox-boy!” Marinette heard Alya call out, “Are you a hero too, like Ladybug and Chat Noir? Why haven’t we seen you around before?”

Her new partner stuttered “Uh… Yeah. I mean--yes, I’m like Ladybug and Chat Noir. I’m, umm… new?”

“So, what’s your name?”

“Uh…” the other voice paused, “… Rusé?”

“Great! You should get going now, the akuma is heading to the principal’s office.” Alya snorted, “Probably to kill Chloe.”

“And you’ll stay here?”

Alya didn’t answer, but Marinette heard her sneak over to Nino to look after him. Correctly assuming that nobody would see her leaving, she snuck out the back of the classroom. She transformed into Ladybug in record time and raced for the Principal’s office only to hear a pained scream. She swung into the fight on her yoyo and glanced at the new “hero” before focusing on the fight.

If “Rusé” couldn’t handle getting temporarily injured while fighting an akuma he shouldn’t be a hero.

A few seconds later, she heard Chat Noir arrive.

Him and the new hero, Rusé, were talking quietly, frowning, then her partner called out to her, “My Lady! Our new friend here say that those chemicals chew through flesh, we need to hurry this up!”

Ladybug nodded, though Chat probably couldn’t see it, and continued to fight.

Soon, the other two launched themselves into battle. The battle was getting heated when Ladybug realised that Ms. Chemical was standing directly below a lighting fixture that would distract the akuma long enough for the hero to snatch the bottle she had deduced held the butterfly.

“Chat!” She cried, “Use Cataclysm on the light!”

And he did, launching himself up to it with his staff and snapping the chain.

The fixture fell onto the teacher’s head and Ladybug lept for the akuma, grabbing at the bottle. She fell just short of reaching it and by then the akuma had recovered and was preparing another dangerous disaster for them.

Somewhere near her she heard Rusé call out “Se métamorphoser,” which she assumed was his ability to change forms, and he dashed up to Ms. Chemical as a fox.

Worried for the fox, though she wouldn’t admit it, she called out “Lucky Charm,” hoping to get something that would end the fight. Instead, she got a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and some medical tape.

By the time she realised she had no idea what she was supposed to use with her lucky charms, Rusé had crushed the bottle and howled in pain as the liquid in the vial splashed out onto his paws.

Ladybug watched in horror as the fur almost melted off of the animal’s paws. Then the fox was human again, the gloves of his suit gone and his fingertips and palms without skin.

She wanted to throw up at the disgusting sight of muscle and veins but snapped herself out of it, determined not to let the dark butterfly leave and cause more havoc and pain.

After capturing and purifying the akuma she didn’t throw her unused lucky charm in the air to fix what had been destroyed but moved to sit next to the fox.

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you at first,” she started, upset with herself, tears budding in the corners of her eyes, “But the whole Volpina thing had just happened and I thought you could possibly be someone like her.”

Rusé smiled gently at her, “I understand. I probably wouldn’t have trusted me either. Now could you… uh… help me?”  
He held up his hands and she frowned at them, “Normally the akuma’s aren’t this… violent. I wonder why Le Papillon has made them more of killers--maybe because there’s three of us now?”

The new hero shrugged and Chat sidled himself up next to the newest hero, plunking onto the ground beside him.

“Are you going to be okay out of costume?” Chat asked him and Ladybug opened her mouth to tell him that they weren’t supposed to know anything about each other outside of costume but the cat continued, “I know that sometimes, after a really tough fight, when I detransform I have bruises and scratches on my body. My kwami says its because he can only take part of the damage I’ve sustained.”

Ladybug’s mouth dropped open as he spoke, she had  _ never  _ been injured after  _ any  _ of the battles and thought it was the same for her black cat, “You- you get hurt during the fights? Why didn’t you  _ say _ something?”

Chat looked at her incredulously and took one of the new hero’s hands in his own gently, turning it over comfortingly and causing a spike of jealousy in the bug, “Of course. Did you think I could get away from being slammed into walls and cars and things  _ without  _ getting hurt?”

Her brow furrowed, “Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t get hurt when _I_ get thrown into walls or anything.”  
Chat’s lips pursed and he dumped a bit of the peroxide on the fox-boy’s wounds, wincing as the redhead hissed out in pain. “It must be your kwami then. Ladybugs are supposed to be lucky, so maybe its just that you’re _lucky_ enough not to stay injured.”

“Maybe,” Ladybug sighed. For her, this was news. She had no idea that injuries they got while transformed could transfer to their civilian selves; she would have to talk to Tikki about this once she detransformed.

Soon Chat Noir finished dumping peroxide on Rusé’s hands and Ladybug began wrapping them with the medical tape. The cat stood up and stretched, back popping, and gave a slightly tired looking grin.

“So, Foxy, what’s  _ your  _ name?”

Rusé, as Ladybug knew he was called, grinned at the nickname and flexed his still skinless fingers, “Rusé.”

Chat grinned back at him, “Cute name, fluff-ball.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes at the insufferable cat and grabbed the used chemical bottle, throwing it in the air and shouting “Miraculous Ladybug!” to turn everything back to how it was.

She was disappointed when the tape disappeared, but she and Chat Noir stared in awe as the miraculous cure swept over their new partner and new, bright pink skin appeared on his hand and the gloves were fixed. Then Rusé pulled the bandage off of his face to reveal fresh pink skin there, just below his left eye. The two male heroes’ miraculouses chimed that they were running out of time and Chat bowed to her before rushing out of the room. Rusé took his time--making sure he didn’t hurt himself more--and then Chloe, who she hadn’t know was even  _ there, _ rushed over to her.

“Ladybug!” she cried, “I’m so glad you’re here and stopped that awful villain! We should get a picture together!”

The blonde pulled out her phone and the bug-themed heroine frowned for a moment until her earrings, conveniently, signaled that she had to go. Sighing in relief, Ladybug swung away from the blonde terror only a little upset that Rusé was going to have to deal with her.

When she arrived back in the classroom as Marinette saw her classmates waking up and asking what had happened, though nobody remembered.

A short time later, Ms. Mendeleiev marched into the classroom, face reddened with embarrassment, and stood before the sleepy class.

“Class,” she began, “I apologize for this afternoon and Principal Damocles has told me to inform you of an early dismissal from classes due to the akuma attack. If you would all please gather your things…”

Marinette began packing her things, looking up as someone passed her on their way out of class. It was Nathanael, who had at one time been the Evillustrator, walking out of class. The tips of his fingers were bleeding a little, she saw, and as she looked at his face she had to hide a gasp. On the shy boy’s face was a patch of bright pink new skin, right below his left eye. Right where the spot had been on Rusé’s face.

It wasn’t concrete evidence, she knew, but her gut told her that her new partner and her shy classmate were one and the same.


	4. Chapter 4

When Nathanael arrived at home after the Ms. Chemical incident, the first thing he did was give Trixx a macaroon. His kwami was exhausted and wouldn’t shut up on the way to his house about how stupid it was of him to get hit during battle. It’s not like he  _ wanted  _ to get hit by the vials of chemicals his akumatized teacher was throwing around.

Once she had gotten her food Trixx was a lot calmer (and nicer), laying on his bed as he wrapped up the tips of his fingers and sitting in his hair when he began working on his homework.

Soon, though, he ran out of things to distract him from his thoughts.

Images of Chat Noir and Adrien raced through his mind; the bruise on Adrien’s arm, Chat Noir being thrown into a wall and injuring that same arm. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say Adrien and Chat Noir look alike either. In fact, they looked almost identical! The only differences were the leather catsuit and green sclera. 

Nath grabbed Trixx by the tail and plucked her out of his hair, holding the struggling fox in front of his face, “Is Adrien Chat Noir?”

Trixx fought him harder for a moment then stopped struggling and just… kind of…  _ drooped.  _ Trixx was well aware of the fact that Chat Noir and Ladybug didn’t want their identities known, and now one of them had been figured out. Tikki was going to be so upset with her _ ,  _ just because her wielder was always more perceptive than the bug’s.

“You can’t let them know you know,” Trixx begged, “Ladybug doesn’t want them to share their identities. You shouldn’t have figured it out.”

Now it was Nathanael’s turn to droop. He hadn’t known that the other heroes were as in the dark about the identities of their allies as him. He knew he wasn’t cut out for this.

“I didn’t know,” he murmured, “But I won’t let on that I know it’s him. I swear.”

Trixx gave a relieved sigh and pried her tail out of his grasp, floating down so she was sitting in front of him. Her charge looked upset so, grudgingly, she conceded a little, “That doesn’t mean you can’t try to get closer to him though, just as your civilian self.”

Her tomato-boy perked up at that, a grin stretching from ear to ear. Trixx was regretting her decision already.

Nath stayed in his euphoric mood until the next day when he realised that he didn’t know how to interact with people. It wasn’t even that he was nervous around people, he just didn’t understand why they did some of the things they did. Like make eye contact. Or make small talk.

So Nathanael didn’t even try to talk to Adrien, just sulked his way to the back of the classroom where, once again, his existence would be forgotten.

He was snapped out of his pity party by books not his own being dropped onto the table. Figuring it was Lila deciding to come pester him during class again he ignored the person. Or, that is, he  _ tried _ . Whoever was sitting next to him smelled good, like really good. And  _ no  _ that wasn’t weird, whoever was sitting next to him just… had on a lot of cologne.

“Hey. Nathanael, right?” the person next to him whispered, trying not to get caught talking during class by the teacher.

“Uh, yes,” he said, looking at the person for the first time. He regretted it instantly.

It was Adrien, and the way he was sitting made a halo of light appear around his head and he seemed to glow with childish joy despite the shy and awkward smile on his face. It was enough to make a straight man gay. Luckily, or unluckily, Nathanael wasn’t one hundred percent straight.

“Adrien!” he exclaimed, “Hi Adrien, hi Adrien. Uh… what-what’re you doing here?”

Aaand there went every chance he had of keeping his dignity intact.

The blond boy next to him made a face-- _ probably regretting his decision to talk to me,  _ Nath thought--but smiled at him again.

“I just wanted to know if maybe, maybe you’d like to hang out today? At lunch?”

Nath tried very hard to keep the ridiculous grin off his face and just barely succeeded. No need to go acting like Marinette now. Besides, he didn’t think the model was all that attractive. Not at all.

(That was so big of a lie he knew people would sooner fall for the “‘gullible’ is written on the ceiling” trick than believe him. And it wasn’t as if he’d had a ridiculous crush on Chat Noir-- _ Adrien Agreste _ \--ever since the hero had shown up.)

After giving Adrien the affirmative the boy gathered his things and snuck back to his seat. The rest of his before-lunch classes passed in a blur and soon he was on the school’s lawn with Adrien, having an actual conversation.

“So,” the blond began, “what do you think of Chat Noir?”

Nath held in a snort at the question and replied, “I think he’s a dork.”

Adrien looked a little put out, so he added in a bit more, “But he’s strong and kind. And he looks  _ really _ attractive in leather.”

Now the model was goggling at him and Nathanael realised that he had just admitted to Chat Noir that he thought Chat Noir was attractive. He could feel the blush lighting up his face and saw the wicked grin growing on Adrien’s face. He’d never live this down.

He buried his face in his hands and tried to will the ground to swallow him whole, but it didn’t happen.

“If we’re sharing what superheroes we think are most attractive,” Adrien began seriously, “I’d have to agree with you.”

Nath didn’t even  _ try  _ to stop the groan from escaping. That ridiculous, self-obsessed cat.

Adrien just grinned at him, so obviously and sickeningly smug, and Nathanael wished he could say that he knew the other’s secret identity.

“But,” the model continued, “Rusé is really attractive too. I mean, did you  _ see  _ him in that suit?”

Nath’s face was lit up in so much red it almost matched his hair and if his secret hadn’t been out before, Adrien definitely knew it was him  _ now. _

The entire lunch hour was spent that way--discussing the most random subjects, playing stupid games on their phones with and against each other. At one point they ended up lying next to each other, exhausted from Nathanael chasing Adrien around the school’s yard in an attempt to recapture his phone before the blond saw something he didn’t want to see.

That had been Nath’s favorite part of their hanging out because Adrien’s hand had brushed his own and he had gotten confirmation that the model really was Chat Noir in the form of the boy’s white ring.

There had been odd moments though, like when Adrien stared at his necklace that had slipped out from underneath his shirt, or when he had rubbed Nath’s hands gentle enough that he wouldn’t hurt the new skin that only Chat Noir would know was there. (But then again, Adrien  _ was  _ Chat Noir so the cat boy probably connected the dots. Not a lot of redheads in Paris with his exact build after all.)

Despite the weirdness, both of them had had a good time and Adrien had promised that they would do it again. Soon.

Nathanael’s excitement had lasted until he got into his next class. As soon as he walked through the door Chloe was in his face, furious that her Adrikins had been “forced” to spend his lunch hour with the lower class.

“ _ What _ ,” she ground out, “did you think you were doing. Hanging out with  _ my  _ Adrien, forcing him to do such… such childish things!”

HIs eyes were as wide as saucers, he surprised at Chloe’s anger though he really shouldn’t be, “But,  _ he _ had asked  _ me  _ to hang out with him…?”

Chloe’s “hmff”ed and tossed her hair, “He only asked because he felt  _ bad  _ for you, being a peasant and all. He’s too  _ nice  _ to let you be what you really are: lonely, pathetic and  _ lame _ .”

_ ‘You can lie to yourself all you want Nathanael, but I will  _ always  _ know. I will always know just how  _ pathetic  _ you are, how pathetic, weak, and lonely. I knew you were a mistake as soon as I gave birth to you and your father left me.’ _

Nath recoiled at her words, bumping into Marinette who had just been walking through the door. He expected her to stand up for him against Chloe, like she did with everyone else, but instead she looked at him like he was disgusting--like Chloe was  _ right. _

He murmured an apology for bumping into Marinette and scuttled to his seat in the back of the class.

By the time he got to his seat he could feel tears pricking the corners of his eyes and he blinked, wiping them away with the back of his hand. He had to be careful, he knew, because Le Papillon had started re-akumatizing people. Ladybug and Chat Noir had both said that those people were more susceptible to being attacked again and now he was afraid that all of his devastation and anger would be like a beacon for the butterflies. He couldn’t help his thoughts though.

He knew that he wasn’t the most popular person in the school and he knew he didn’t have many friends, he knew he wasn’t rich like Chloe and Adrien but he had thought…  _ maybe _ … it wouldn’t matter. But it did, and he was crushed because  _ how could he have been so blind?  _ Of  _ course  _ Adrien had only hung out with him out of pity. Rose and Juleka were the same, probably.

His friends were everything to him, he couldn’t bear the thought that they didn’t actually like him, that they only put up with him and, not for the first time, Nathanael wanted to die.

Tears rolled down his cheeks unencumbered and Trixx was pulling on his shirtsleeve, trying to tell him that he probably looked like a big target for the nasty bugs, but he didn’t notice. His mind was a rush of past experiences where he’d just been shoved to the side, discarded for someone new and better.

_ His best friend, a beautiful girl named Marinette, walking away from him when he called out to her and told her “ _ Please don’t leave me, please I can’t handle you leaving too,”  _ and she just walked away. _

A window was open in the classroom, leaving nothing to block a possible akuma.

_ His mother looked at him, disgusted, and screamed at him. He deserved it. He was a disgrace. It wasn’t  _ right  _ to think boys were attractive, his mother always told him, but he couldn’t help who he was. _

Unnoticed, something flew through the window.

_ Red flowed down his wrists and down the shower drain. He watched, emotionless, as the blood left his body, just like he wanted it to. _

A butterfly, black and reeking of despair, landed itself on his necklace and Le Papillon’s voice once again filled his head.

“Evillustrator,” the man began, “You’re frustrated, angry that everyone is leaving you behind. Furious that your only friends are yours out of pity. Become my champion and teach the fools that what they’ve done is wrong. All I need in return… are the miraculouses of Chat Noir, Ladybug, and Rusé.”

Nathanael whimpered before replying, “I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just want to be left alone.”

_He was the Evillustrator and all he wanted was a_ friend, _but Marinette tricked him and he was alone again. Just like he had always been._

“And you will be left alone all you like,” Le Papillon ground out, “ _ After  _ you get me the miraculouses. Unless you need a little…  _ persuasion. _ ”

His hands began to shake and it felt like electricity was shooting through his body. Shakily he raised his hand and asked to be excused, he felt ill.

_ He retched as he remembered his time as a villain, he  _ hated  _ what he had become. If he was only a little braver, cut a little deeper, he’d never have tried to hurt anyone. He wouldn’t have been  _ around  _ to hurt anyone. _

The teacher gave him his permission and he left, body shaking almost imperceptively with tremors, to hide in the bathroom. Once there he huddled by the sink furthest from the door, shaking with the electricity running through his veins. He couldn’t betray Ladybug and Chat Noir, he just couldn’t.

_ Ladybug looked at him as if he was worse than dirt on the bottom of her shoes and Rusé contained his flinch. He knew that he shouldn’t have tried to be a hero. Trixx was wrong, Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t need help. Nobody needed him. _

Squealing, the bathroom door opened and Adrien stuck his head in. Upon spotting his redheaded friend he marched his way over, plopping down next to Nath and just sitting there.

Nathanael stared at him, knowing he looked like he was about to be akumatized, and frowned.

“Stop me,” He said, “When I transform. I don’t want to hurt anybody, cat.”

Adrien couldn’t have looked less shocked that his secret was out and replied, “Alright, foxy.”

The pain stopped and, inside his head, Le Papillon began speaking to him again; “Evillustrator, do you yeild?”

Nathanael nodded and he was engulfed in a substance like tar, or like physical taint.

Adrien rushed out of the bathroom and the Evillustrator started for Marinette, ready to destroy her.

He stopped outside of the classroom door and frowned, Chat Noir and Ladybug hadn’t yet made their appearances. How was he supposed to collect their miraculuses if they didn’t show up?

Something hit him from behind and knocked him sprawling on the floor, sending his pen rolling to his assailant’s feet.

Ladybug.

_That_ _bitch._

She grabbed his pen off of the floor and snapped it, obviously expecting the akuma to fly out of it so she could purify it. Unfortunately, there was no butterfly inside.

The Evillustrator sketched a cage on his tablet with his finger and it dropped over her nicely. She wouldn’t be able to get out without help from her black cat. Sadly for the spotted heroine, her kitty had a soft spot for short redheaded boys.

“Don’t try to stop me,” he said, “I only want two people; Chloe and Marinette.”

Ladybug’s jaw dropped at the mention of Marinette and the Evillustrator smirked at her.

“Marinette’s the reason I’m here again, after all. She could have stood up for me but instead she looked at me as if I was less than the dirt under her shoe. That hurt more than Chloe’s words. Everyone knows she’s just some stupid spoilt brat. But Marinette?” the villain turned and erased the classroom door, “I looked up to her. I thought she was better than that and she stabbed a metaphorical knife through my chest again. This time though, it was the last straw.”

Ladybug made a distressed sound and the Evillustrator made his way into the classroom, intent on finding the annoying blue-haired girl that caused this. Had caused  _ more  _ pain in his life.

He had just realized that Marinette wasn’t in the room when Chat Noir burst in followed by a freed Ladybug. The artistic akuma snarled at them and quickly sketched himself a flute, like the one Volpina used. Blowing into it he used its illusion creating powers to create the illusion of multiple versions of himself.

The versions of him caused havoc in the classroom and, as the heroes were distracted, the real Evillustrator slipped out of the classroom. Thinking he was home free he canceled his illustration of a flute, inadvertently destroying the illusions.

He was once again thrown to the ground, this time by Chat Noir who yanked the fox-tail necklace off of him as he was pinned below the taller boy and smashed it. Knowing that Nathanael wouldn’t want his identity revealed to Ladybug, the cat replaced the necklace around Nath’s neck before the bug-themed hero purified the akuma and threw her unneeded lucky charm into the air to undo the damage done.

When Nathanael was back to himself he smiled softly at Chat, almost completely ignoring Ladybug, and thanked him.

“Thank you A-Chat. I’m glad you,” Nath glanced at Ladybug, “and Ladybug stopped me. I didn’t really want to hurt anybody, but Le Papillon has his ways of getting the (very) reluctant to agree to be his champions.”

Ladybug gave him a sad sort of smile and agreed, “Le Papillon can be very good with words, it’s no wonder so many people fall under his spell.”

Now it was Nath’s turn to smile sadly at the innocent hero, but he wasn’t going to burst her bubble and tell her that Le Papillon could use more than just words to persuade. He wasn’t that cruel (even if her alter ego was the reason he turned into the Evillustrator yet again).

Her earrings beeped and she saluted Chat Noir, who was still pinning him to the ground, before swinging away to detransform some place secluded.

Nath gave Chat Noir a look as his ring flashed, telling him that his time was running out, but the stubborn cat didn’t leave. They sat there a few minutes more and there was a flash of green light before it was Adrien Agreste on top of him instead of Paris’ hero.

Nath knew as he saw Trixx greeting a small floating black cat that he and Adrien were going to have a lot to discuss before parting ways.


	5. Chapter 5

Nathanael sat next to Adrien in silence for a moment before stating the obvious.

“You’re Chat Noir.”

“And you’re Rusé,” Adrien replied.

Despite the fact that they had clearly both known, or had had their suspicions, about the other, it was still shocking to have concrete proof.

“Well,” Nath began, “I guess the cat’s out of the bag for both of us.”

Adrien laughed at that, happy that his other partner had something of an appreciation for puns, “Our kwamis really do illustrate that quite well.”

Nathanael rolled his eyes and laughed with the model. He loved puns so much.

They stood and walked together, heading for a more private section of hallway to continue talking, and sat down against a wall.

The two sat there another few moments in silence, and began talking at once.

“What does-”

“When did you-”

They paused.

“You first,” they said, in unison.

After calming from their laugher Adrien began, “When did you become Rusé? I mean, obviously a few days ago, but  _ why  _ did you decide to become Rusé?”

The redhead paused to think about his answer and then spoke, “I guess I became Rusé because I felt like I had to do something. I mean, you and Ladybug (yes I know who she is Adrien, no I won’t tell you) both do so much for Paris and I… I look up to you guys. You’re so brave and strong, both of you. When I met Trixx, my kwami, I thought it was all a big prank but she showed me otherwise and now I just love helping people.”

He wasn’t going to admit that another reason he did it was because it would give him a reason to get up some mornings. Chat didn’t need to know that.

“That’s an awesome reason. Honestly, I became Chat Noir so that I could be myself. At home and here at school I’m expected to act a certain way, be a  _ professional _ , but as Chat Noir I can be the rest of me. You know, the pun-loving, flirtatious nerdy cat,” Adrien paused, “I mean--I’m not a cat! But… you know what I mean.”

Nath giggled (giggled! honestly!) at his hero’s stuttering and he could feel his face heating up. As Adrien talked he found himself being drawn deeper into the taller boy’s web of innocence and Nathanael smiled. For the first time in a long time he could say that he was really, truly happy. Even though he was sitting in a cold school hallway after having been taken advantage of emotionally by a man with too much power.

***

They sat and talked like that until the school day ended and they were almost ran over by the wave of people. One of the people they saw was Marinette who was frantically trying to find someone and Nath watched her sigh, disappointed, before she tripped over Adrien’s outstretched legs.

As she got up she saw exactly who she had made a fool of herself in front of and her face turned a beautiful red color. She stuttered out a greeting to her famous crush and he smiled at her; Nathanael knew she was on the verge of fainting then and there.

Then she saw  _ him _ and, honestly, he expected her to yell at him for trying to kill her when he was akumatized but instead she sank down next to him.

“Nathanael,” she began, “I am so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I was just in a bad mood. Can you please forgive me?”

He grinned at her, cheeks slightly flushed at the thought that she cared enough to seek him out (even though he knew she only had a guilty conscience), “It’s okay. I mean, everybody has bad days and I can’t hold that against you. And, um…” he couldn’t help but sneak in a little hint for the clueless cat, since he was already ruining everything, “Thank you for helping to get me back to normal.”

Her grin looked a little forced then and for a moment he regretted opening his big mouth, but then her civilian partner spoke up, eyes bright.

“My Lady?” Adrien asked and Marinette blushed at those words coming out of her crush’s mouth. Then she put the pieces together.

“Chat?” She asked, then looked at the redhead, “Rusé?”

The two nodded at their respective alter egos and Marinette gave them both stern looks.

“Rusé, I know you’re new but I hadn’t wanted us to share our identities with one another. It’s too dangerous if one of us gets akumatized.”

The fox hero gave her a look saying that he wasn’t amused. He had  _ just  _ gotten akumatized and Le Papillon hadn’t read it from his mind. Was she  _ seriously  _ going to try that?

Adrien gave her a look too, despite the fact that he had a huge crush on her alter ego, and voiced his dislike of her admonishing.

“You can’t tell us Le Papillon might pry the information from our minds because Nath--can I call you Nath? Yes? Good.--was  _ just  _ akumatized and Le Papillon hasn’t figured us out. I know you wanted us to not know each other, but I had had my suspicions, as had Rusé. The suits we wear only seem to mislead people who are our enemies or who are civilians, we were bound to connect the dots eventually. We should just be glad that now that we know who we are we can cover for each other. ”

Nathanael nodded, “Yeah. And if one of us--me or Chat I mean--is in a situation that they can’t get out of without raising suspicion we can say so and the other can do the work. Or if Le Papillon decides to move to two akumas a day.”

“And,” Chat added, “We won’t need to worry that our civilian selves are in danger. After the attacks we can cover for each other too, that way it’ll be less suspicious.”

Ladybug/Marinette frowned but appeared to be pondering the idea. Eventually she sighed and nodded, conceding that  _ maybe  _ it was a good idea that they know their identities. Still, she gave Nathanael another stern look, one that seemed to say that she didn’t approve of him chasing after Adrien, the boy she’s had a crush on for ages.

Nath smiled innocently at her, pretending he didn’t understand what she was trying to convey with her eyes and Adrien could only glance between them when he felt the tension in the air rise.

“Well,” Marinette began boldly, channeling her Ladybug counterpart and standing, “I’ve got to get home. Maman needs me to run the bakery. Feel free to stop by anytime Nathanael, A-Adrien.”

Her cheeks flushed a deep red and she scampered away from where they still sat on the floor. Nathanael knew that, even though things were far from perfect at the moment, everything would work itself out. Maybe it would take a few day, maybe it would take a few months, but the three of them would eventually, hopefully, become friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This definitely didn't end how I wanted it to end, but I think it's okay. Leave some comments, ask some questions, request a fic... go nuts!  
> I hope you enjoyed and I'm sorry for the wait.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it and if there's something you want to see or if you find some (or a lot) of grammar errors, please leave a comment!


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